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Wednesday, 24 September 2014

I made a
cheesecake. I climbed the mountain, and conquered. For the last five years,
I’ve tried a multitude of recipes and different ways to make cheesecake, hoping
that each one will be the best one. They’ve all failed. The no bake cheesecake
was promptly distributed amongst my 4 dogs who were going crazy with the smell,
the quick and easy 6 ingredient one was manfully eaten and never mentioned
again, and I don’t even want to talk about the others.

The recipes that
seemed worth attempting all included using a water bath, which is by far the
most intimidating thing I’ve ever done. If you know me (and you should by now),
you’ll know that I’m inordinately clumsy. Over the last few weeks, I’ve cut
myself in three different places on my hands, burnt my fingers on my shiny new
frying pan, sliced a finger on glass and dropped countless knives a hairs
breadth away from my toes. Pouring boiling hot water into a pan and then gently
easing it into an oven is something I should not do without supervision!

Being a Parsi, we
get 2 birthdays. One is of course the day we’re born, and the other is the day
we’re born according to the Parsi calendar. Double presents, double the fuss,
double the cake. My Parsi birthday was on the same day as my husband’s
grandmums birthday, so I decided to bake her (us) something using some sweet
and sharp flavours.

It was time to
test my new kitchen and hopefully improved skills out. I found a relatively
easy looking recipe online, which didn’t include using a gargantum amount of
cream cheese and decided to go for it. The results were surprisingly yummy, if
I do say so myself.

And your Topping:
A handful fresh or frozen raspberries
A few tablespoons raspberry coulis

A few mint leaves

Preheat the oven to 160 ° C.

Assemble your ingredients

Step 1

In a big mixing bowl, crush the digestive biscuits - I use my hands to
break them up, it’s vaguely therapeutic. Add the melted butter & cinnamon
powder to your biscuits and keep crushing. It will look like wet sand and taste
incredible. I am not too fussy about the size of the pieces, as long as they're small they don’t need to
become too fine.

Like the branding shot?

Biscuit crumb, Ready to be devoured!

Step 2

Lightly coat the bottom and sides of an 8-inch springform pan with
non-stick cooking spray (if not cooking
spray, use some butter).

Step 3

Pour the crumbs into the pan and, using the bottom of a measuring cup or
the smooth bottom of a glass, press the crumbs down into the base and 1-inch up
the sides. Refrigerate for 5 minutes. (I
struggled with getting my crumbs evenly up the sides, and then eventually
decided that it was a labour of love, and I was not being judged on perfection,
so let it remain wavy.)

Doesn't that look awesome?

Step 4

Using your trusty kitchenaid (or a regular hand mixer) beat the cream
cheese on low speed until smooth and free of any lumps.

Step 5

Add the eggs 1 at a time and continue to beat until combined.
Add sugar in three parts and beat until creamy, for 1 to 2 minutes.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl

Step 6

Add the sour cream, lemon zest, and vanilla and continue to mix for a
few minutes. This will take more time to do if you’re using a hand held mixer. The
batter should be well-mixed but not overbeaten. Make sure you taste the mix, if
you feel like you want it more lemon-y, add the zest of another half lemon.

Switch on your electric kettle, and put the water to boil.

Have you seen my awesome new bookstand?

Step 7

Set the cheesecake pan on a large piece of aluminum foil and fold up the sides around it. Place the cake pan in a large roasting pan.

Pour the filling into the crust-lined pan and smooth the top with a
spatula. Feel free to lick the spatula, beaters, mixing bowl after!

Ready to pour captain

Step 8

Pour boiling water into the roasting pan until the water is about
halfway up the sides of the cheesecake pan; the foil should keep the water from
seeping into the cheesecake. Clumsy me dropped a teeny bit of water into the
foil, and then had to pray madly that it didn’t make a difference.

On its way into the oven

Step 9

Bake for 1 hour. The cheesecake should still jiggle (it will firm up
after chilling), so don’t overcook. I was paranoid that my oven was too hot, so
I took it out after 50 minutes, which worked just as well.

Eat your yummy dinner while you wait

Step 10 – making the coulis

Take 100 grams (or thereabouts) of raspberries, add 75 grams of sugar
and the juice of a lemon or 2 limes into a bowl. Let it sit for 20 minutes, the
sugar will draw the liquid out of the raspberries.

Put in a blender and mix till smooth.

You can then use the coulis as is, or pass it through a sieve to get a
smooth, silky sauce.

Refridgerate until needed.

Step 11

Let the cheesecake cool down in the pan for a while, around an hour,
till the tin is not so hot.

Chill in the refrigerator, loosely covered, for at least 4 hours. I made
this night before, and so it stayed in the fridge for about 12 hours which is also a perfectly acceptable thing to do!

Super excited to see it looking so yellow

Another angle

TO ASSEMBLE

Step 1

Take the cheesecake out of the fridge ten minutes before you want to
unmould it. Loosen it from the sides of the pan by running a knife around the
inside rim. Release the spring mechanism and Voila! Le Cheesecake!

Oh happy day

Step 2

Un-mold and transfer to a cake plate. I find this the most difficult to
do, infact this to me is the moment of truth. I have a giant cake spatula which
is very painstakingly eased under the cheesecake, careful not to break too much
of the biscuit. IT HELD!!!

Pretty fretty cheesecake

Step 3

Spoon raspberry coulis on top of the cheesecake and smooth it out. It
should be a lovely even bright pink.

Mmm

Place your raspberries here and there (I have NO eye for decoration, so
do as you please!) and strew a few mint leaves to finish.

Halfway through decorating

Voila!

Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Dig in! The cheesecake is soft and crumbly, the biscuit crunchy and delicious and the raspberry zinging through makes the entire thing absolutely delicious.

Thursday, 10 July 2014

The amazing part about my new
house is that the kitchenaid gets pride of place on a countertop, which means
that I can bake ANY TIME I WANT without the hassle of lugging it from my room
to the kitchen, unpacking, washing and repacking. I’ve gone a little crazy the
last few weeks and made everything from crème anglais (for an ice cream that
failed), to pizza dough, to meringues, to a variety of other baked goods, all
with my trusty blue mixie (mixie, nixie, twixie… get it??). I’ve tried this jam
tart a few times (thank you Smitten Kitchen) and
have made some adjustments based on material availability in India as well as
what was in the house when I decided to cook.

1 jar of jam (around 450 grams) (I used
Bhuira jam for this – made with love by a friends mum up in the mountains - and
it was delicious. You get a whole variety of flavours to try, not necessarily
just in dessert, but also on toast or even on its own.)

So good

Step 1

Mix the butter and sugar together
until its smooth. (I use very coarse sugar, so it takes a few minutes more than
it takes other people to mix. The butter should be a lovely pale yellow before
you move onto the next step.)

Step 2

Add the egg + second yolk to the
butter-sugar mixture once its smooth. If you’re using a stand mixer, this
process becomes super easy because you just pour things into the bowl and watch
it work. Make sure this has combined before adding the dry ingredients.

Step 3

Whisk your flour, semolina,
baking powder and salt together before adding to the

Gradually add the flour mixture
and mix until the dough just comes together. This is a sticky, fall apart dough
that’s absolutely yummy if you want to keep picking at it (I did!).

Step 4

Take a third of the dough and
transfer to a lightly floured counter. Roll the dough into the shape of a log
that’s roughly 2 inches thick and 7-8 inches long. Wrap tightly in clingflim and
put in the fridge.

Step 5

Put the rest of the dough in a
pie or tart dish. The original recipe says to use one with a removable bottom,
but I never seem to be able to find one when I’ve decided to make this. I
always end up using a glass pie dish and it comes out just as well. Use a dish
that’s got a 9-inch diameter, any smaller and you will have too much dough left
over.

Using your hands, press the dough
evenly into the bottom and up the sides. Put it in the fridge for at least an
hour. (If you’re using a glass pie dish,
make sure you take it out ten minutes before you put it into the oven or it
will shatter when cold meets hot.)

Dough chilling, waiting to be baked

Step 6

Preheat your oven to 190 degrees
C.

Take your jar of jam and slop it
around on the pie base. Make sure it's spread out evenly.

Even enough?

Step 7

Take the dough log out of the
fridge and using a very sharp knife, quickly cut it into thin circles. I’m incredibly
impatient and not at all precise, so mine varied in thickness and size. It doesn’t
really matter all that much it tastes delicious no matter what.

Waiting to be carved

Arrange them in concentric
circles over the jam to form a top. You need to them to overlap slightly. Any
leftover bits of dough can be stuck and squashed into gaps when you’re finished
being artistic.

So many gaps to fill!

Whisk the remaining egg white with a teaspoon of water in a
little bowl until frothy; and then brush onto the tart lid. Sprinkle the top
with sugar and bake it for 25-30 minutes, until the top is golden.

Let it cool completely and serve
with ice cream, or simply on its own.

Thursday, 26 June 2014

Have you ever watched a random TV
show that suddenly gets you completely hooked? I spend the first hour after I
get home from work lounging on my bed watching random TV, and talking to my dad
through the door, who is in the identical position on his bed. We both happened
to be watching Gordon Ramsey’s Ultimate Cooking Course one evening, and
couldn’t stop watching after.

My husband (oooh I said husband!)
and I love making pizza. We love eating it even more, but hey who doesn’t! We
bought ourselves a pizza book from Italy, as well as a wooden pizza tray and it
makes things so so so fun. If you haven’t figured it out
already, I’m an over excited cook, and I can’t make something without having
ten people over to try it (even though it may bomb completely the first time).
Queue pizza and ice cream night….

I’ve obviously not been working
much, so I had a day to spend at home with my trusty kitchen aid (Mixie loves
being on the counter all the time).

Sausage pizza, ready for the oven

Gordon’sPizza Dough

You will need

500 grams flour

1 tbsp. sea salt (or fine salt, or
any salt)

14 gms. yeast

1 tbsp. caster sugar

4 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

325ml lukewarm water

If you’re using a stand mixer, this
is the easiest dough in the world, it kneads itself! If not, there’s always
something extremely therapeutic about pummeling dough.

Step 1

Mix the flour and salt together and
make a well in the middle.

Step 2

Put the yeast, sugar & oil into
a glass with water and leave it to prove. This will become foamy, bubble and
extremely yeasty to smell, that’s when you know it’s done. (Should take around
7 to 10 minutes)

Step 3

Slowly add the liquid to your dry
ingredients, keeping the mixer on slow. You are using the dough hook, and not
any paddle. If using your hands, bring the flour in from the sides with a fork
and swirl it into the liquid until it starts to come together.

Step 4

Work the rest of the flour with
clean hands, kneading till you have a smooth, springy dough.

Step 5

Put the ball of dough in a large
flour-dusted bowl, sprinkle with flour and cover with a damp cloth. Place in a
warm room for an hour until doubled in size.

Step 6

Tip the dough onto a flour-dusted
surface and knead it around (i.e. PUNCH
IT UP) a bit to push the air out with your hands. You can either use it
immediately, or keep it, wrapped in cling film, in the fridge (or freezer)
until required.

(Timing-wise,
it's a good idea to roll the pizzas out about 15 to 20 minutes before you want
to cook them. Don't roll them out and leave them hanging around for a few
hours, though - if you're working in advance like this it's better to leave
your dough, covered with cling film, in the fridge.)

While
you’re waiting for the dough to rise, why don’t you start working on the sauce?
It’s the world’s simplest sauce and takes no time at all.

My homemade Pizza sauce

This recipe can double up as a
pasta sauce as well. It’s simple, easy & requires the least amount of
monitoring I've ever seen. You will need

2 400gm cans of peeled tomatoes

1 large onion, finely chopped

5 or 6 large cloves of garlic,
finely chopped

50ml tomato puree

Mixed Herbs to season

Salt & Pepper to season

Olive oil

Step 1

Add some olive oil into a pan and
sauté the onions & garlic. You want them to become soft, but not burnt
& brown. This should take between 5 & 7 minutes.

Step 2

Add both cans of peeled tomatoes to
the pan. You need to pulverize these to make a sauce. I like using a potato
masher and really squishing them up. If you’re so inclined, you could put the
tomatoes into a mixer and blend them first. That makes the sauce much smoother.

Step 3

Let the tomatoes bubble and boil,
and allow the water to evaporate. Season with salt & pepper to taste, and
add a handful of herbs. I use rosemary and thyme, but there is really no
restriction when it comes to herbs, any and all are wonderful. The pizza sauce
should not take more than 25 to 30 minutes to cook, and you don’t really need
to stand over the pan. Go take a shower, wipe down your kitchen counters, and
maybe lay the table for dinner. It’s not going anywhere.

A whole lotta passata

Making
the Pizza

Pre
heat your oven to 180degrees, and get rolling!

All set up and ready to roll

Once
you're ready to make the pizzas, divide the dough into balls & keep them
covered. The original recipe asked for 4 balls, I made them smaller (owing to
the size of my pan & oven) and turned out maybe ten pizzas that day.

Production line begins

The
original recipe asks for ovenproof pans, which unfortunately I don’t have. I
did the next best thing and slipped the pizzas from my pans onto a silicon
baking mat. It worked just fine.

Pizza Toppings

You
will need:

2
balls fresh mozzarella, shredded (I was
so excited to do this, that I bought 3 different kinds of mozzarella to try
out. I wanted to measure the melting point of each, compare tastes, look &
feel. If you’re like me, feel free, it makes things much more fun in the
kitchen.)

Basil
leaves

Rosemary

Olive
oil

5
or 6 English breakfast sausages (I took
the sausages out of their skins, sliced them into thin discs and lightly fried them, making sure they stayed soft)

Saucisson

Step 1

Roll
one ball out on a floured work surface until it's the same size as your pan.
(If you have 2 pans, you can do 2 pizzas at the same time, it works like
magic).

Roll, roll, roll your dough

Step 2Add a little olive oil to the pan and
add the pizza base, pressing it into the pan. Cook it over a medium heat until
the base crisps and the dough starts to cook through and bubble up, about 5-8
minutes. (If you’re Indian, this is going to look very much like bubbly naans
while cooking)

Wrinkly old pizza base

Double time

Step 3

Spread
2 tablespoons of the tomato sauce on them, and a heaping handful of shredded
mozzarella. You can also add any other topping you want. I mixed things up and
served my friends margarita pizzas as well as something I’d loved in Italy -
salsiccia aka sausage!

Sausage pizza, ready for the oven

Step 4

Put
the prepared pizza on your baking mat and put into the oven until the toppings
bubble and the cheese really starts to ooze everywhere. This should be another
ten minutes.

Waiting for the oven

Step 5Drizzle with more olive oil, top with either basil leaves or
rocket lettuce & serve on a wooden pizza tray.

I'm getting hungry again

Not plated yet!

A bit over exposed, but you get the picture

I served the pizza with simple
salads to accompany: Asparagus from a
tin, marinated mushrooms, pasta salad and a rocket & iceberg lettuce salad.

Happy helper making the pasta salad

We approve

So I usually sign off with a bad
pun or two. Want to hear a joke about pizza? Never mind, it's too cheesy.

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